Unexpected Evans
by moonswirl
Summary: Gleekathon, day seven hundred and seventeen: Sam is woken in the middle of the night to learn Nell is coming.  Had to tweak title 'cause I already had a story called 'Unexpected'...


_Started my daily ficlets to make the hiatus pass, then decided to keep going with a 2nd cycle, and then a 3rd, 4th, etc through 34th cycle. Now cycle 35!_

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><p><strong>YEAR TWO ANNIVERSARY CYCLE!<strong> - Within days it will have been two years since I've started this Gleekathon, and like last year I'm dedicating the cycle to commemorating my 21 favorite one shots or chapter stories from year two (up to the point where I did the planning ;)) A number of those I was very attached to, but left sad to see may have fallen through the cracks, so it seems fair they should get a second shot ;)

Last year there were three categories, but this year I've added two new ones: **Prequel**, **Sequel**, **POV Swap**, and now **Alternate Ending**, and **Additional Scenes**. In no particular order... **Today's story** is Additional Scenes on #448 "Everybody Expects Evans" _a Sam & Nell series story originally posted on January 12th 2011._

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><p><strong>"Unexpected"<br>Sam & Nell  
>Extra to the series <strong>

Her parents knew already, and they were very grudgingly trying to deal with it, but they were not happy, and there was no way they would raise that child… neither would Summer. So options were shrinking away. Eventually, they found a way…

The next few months had been… difficult… on all of them. Summer's parents didn't want him around, and the only times he got to see her were her doctor's appointments – the one compromise he'd gotten to hang on to. Every time he saw her, it seemed she had changed, grown… and he was missing all of it. But on top of it, the less they saw one another, the more he could feel her pull away… It was like she had no part in this… By the seventh month or so, deep down he knew… the moment this baby was born, she would be gone. Those last two months became a losing battle in trying to get her to stay.

The last few days he'd been a wreck… on edge… Summer's due date was coming, any day now his phone would ring… his life would change. He wanted to be there, to help her, any way he could, but they still kept him at an arm's length, even now. At school his phone was on silent, but it was always in his hand, under the desk. Anytime he thought he felt something, he'd stare down at it… nothing. He was losing his mind… he was losing his sleep.

He'd barely slept the last week, afraid he'd miss it. When he couldn't sleep, he'd get up and go check on things. He'd look the crib over, make sure it was really alright, that it wouldn't fall apart or something. He'd look through the clothes, small, neutral… Summer had never found out what they were having, didn't want to know… and he was so scared they'd end up taking away what little contact he had that he'd gone along with it. He looked through his supplies, reread the books stacked by his bedside… He had been practicing diapering on a doll from the hospital… He was ready, he was sleepless… and finally he crashed, sleep taking him over.

"Sam… Sam, you need to wake up… Up, up, up, come on…" he heard, mind still half asleep. "Summer's mother called," were the first words that ran squarely into his brain, and he was jerked awake by them.

"What?" he mumbled. "Is it…"

"Time to go," his mother squeezed his shoulder, and he sprang up in bed, scrambling up on his feet and nearly tripping off the bed and barely getting his balance in time. He hadn't changed, just needed his shoes. He looked around the room… this was it… this was it…

"Mom?" he looked back to her. He was terrified. She nodded, moving up to hug him.

"I know," she promised, rubbing his back. "Let's go."

The whole drive, he just felt his heart ramming in his chest, he couldn't feel anything else, like he had no body… just a heart. When they got to the hospital, he became two feet, finding their way to where they needed to be. He woke up when he got near the room… and he saw them. Summer's parents were sitting outside the room… they waited.

"What are you doing? Who's in there with her?" he asked, face flushed. Summer's mother didn't look at him; her father gave her that same hard face he seemed to reserve especially for him. Sam wanted to yell at them, to unload everything he'd felt for months, about what they'd put him through, what they'd kept him from, but he could hear Summer in that room, and he knew what he had to focus himself on. He thought for sure he'd be afraid to go in there. He knew that Summer didn't care for him the way she used to; he'd started making himself let go, too, to prepare for the idea she could walk away. But somewhere inside him, he remembered how he'd felt for her, and she needed someone. If she was going to leave, then she'd at least remember he'd been there until the end… He'd become someone's father tonight.

He'd held her hand, encouraged her… The whole thing was a blur and he wasn't sure how long he'd been in there. But then the doctor said he could see the head, and he felt Summer squeeze his hand. He looked back to hear, meaning to tell her everything would be fine, but she was the one to speak. "You take it when it's out," she begged. "I can't… I don't…" she cried.

"I know," he promised, and then…

"And she's out," the doctor announced, and Sam looked over as Summer let his hand go.

"She?"

"It's a girl," the man confirmed. Sam took a few steps forward. He was offered scissors to cut the cord and he thought for a second his hands would be shaking too much, that he'd hurt her, but he got through it. The nurse had taken the baby to the side, to clean her, check her. Sam just blinked… He had a daughter… He looked back to Summer; her eyes were closed… didn't want to see… So there it was. Now he would focus all his attention on the newborn. Wrapped in a blanket, they'd handed her to him. In his head he was promising all he had in return for not dropping her.

"Can I?" he indicated the door, then Summer. The nurse gave him a nod. So he carried the baby into the hall, lowering himself into the nearest chair he could find. He was two arms… and eyes for his daughter. Her eyes were small and searching, but then he grasped her little hand and after a moment their eyes met… Sam smiled. "Hi…" He'd never hide the fact that right then and there, 'meeting' his daughter, he had cried. He knew he'd loved her, from the start, even when all of it had been panic and uncertainty. But the moment he'd decided to run back and beg her to keep the baby, to let him take care of her, he'd been awaiting her arrival.

"Sam, she's beautiful," his mother's voice finally managed to get his attention. He looked up… there was no one else in the hall… of course. Mrs. Evans sat at his side, looked to her granddaughter. "Have you picked a name?"

When he was little, he'd look at the stars at night, up in the sky outside his bedroom window. There was one out there, always there, brighter than all the others. He'd named it Penelope, after a character from one of his bedtime stories. And after that, every night, after his 'good night' to his parents, he would say his good night to Penelope, always up there looking down on him. He didn't have bad dreams, because she was there… Maybe now he could do the same for her.

"Her name is Penelope Evans… I'll call her Nell."

THE END

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><p><strong>AN: This is a one-shot ficlet, which means that signing up for story alert will not bring you any alerts.  
><strong>**In the event of a sequel, the story will be separate from this one. And as chapter stories go, they are  
><strong>******always clearly indicated as such [ex: "Days 204-210" in the summary] Thank you!******


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